Silicon Valley management consultant, columnist, and former senior executive Steve Tobak announced today that his long-awaited first book, “Real Leaders Don’t Follow: Being Extraordinary in the Age of the Entrepreneur,” which exposes today’s massively overhyped...

“If you believe all the hype surrounding entrepreneurship and leadership, we should be in the midst of the mother of all startup and small business movements, but we’re not,” said Tobak. “Not only are new business creation and workforce participation at multi-decade lows, that troubling trend is most pronounced among the so-called entrepreneurial generation, Millennials.”

The facts are startling. The number of startups created in the U.S. on an annual basis has fallen nearly 28 percent from 1977 to 2011. And the percentage of startups relative to all businesses and the size of the workforce have both fallen by more than 50 percent. The roughly 30-year trend is across all demographics, regions, and industries, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

“Today’s massively overhyped entrepreneurial craze is not helping Millennials – or anyone else – to become entrepreneurs,” said Tobak. “The irony is, folks are doing the opposite of what real entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, Richard Branson, and Steve Jobs did to become successful. Real leaders don’t waste their time building personal brands and social media following. They build great products that customers love. They build successful businesses.”

Drawing upon decades of personal experience with hundreds of successful CEOs, VCs, and entrepreneurs, “Real Leaders Don't Follow” is a resounding wake-up call for today’s and tomorrow’s executives and business leaders. Its hard-hitting insights and provocative perspectives shatter today’s popular business groupthink and expose the myriad of myths and fads masquerading as common wisdom.

As a Hot New Release on Amazon, Tobak’s message is clearly resonating, and he’s not stopping there. The long-time columnist has also launched his first personal blog that promises to give fans of his writing and new readers alike a uniquely insightful and entertaining experience at stevetobak.com.

Praise for Real Leaders Don’t Follow:“Every emerging or veteran leader can take away powerful lessons from this book,” said Doug Mack, CEO of Fanatics and former CEO of One Kings Lane.

“Real insight and clear thinking from Steve—a highly successful business executive, entrepreneur and damn good writer who knows of what he speaks,” said Jim McCann, Founder and CEO of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM. “This is an extraordinary read that no aspiring entrepreneur or business leader should do without.”

Legendary serial entrepreneur Philippe Kahn said, “Anyone interested in running a company – high-tech or otherwise – will treasure Steve Tobak’s book. It provides new insights that clearly spell out what it takes to be successful in a competitive world.”

About Steve TobakSteve Tobak is a management consultant, featured columnist, and former senior executive of the technology industry. As managing partner of Silicon Valley-based Invisor Consulting, he’s been a trusted strategic advisor to executives and business leaders for more than a decade. He writes insightful and entertaining commentary on business, leadership, and technology for Fox Business and Entrepreneur.com and on his new personal blog. Find out more at stevetobak.com.